GIBRAN
 
LEBANON
 
FRANCE
 
U.S.A.
 
MEXICO
 
 
 
 
 
1880
 
 
 
 
 
 
1881
 
 
 
 
 
 
1882
Gibran is born on January 6th in Bsharri, Lebanon.
 
Lebanon under the domination of the Ottoman Empire since 1516.
 
Death of impressionist painter Édouard Manet and engraver Gustave Doré.
 
First skyscraper in Chicago: the Home Insurance Building.
 
Artist José Clemente Orozco born in Zapotlán el Grande, Jalisco.
1883
 
 
 
 
 
 
1884
Marianna Gibran, the writer’s younger sister, is born in Bsharri.
 
Major towns and villages have drinking water and gas lighting.
 
Death of Victor Hugo.
 
John Pemberton invents
Coca-Cola
as a medicinal drink in Atlanta.
 
A boom in the theater and opera activity in Mexico City.
1885
 
 
 
 
 
 
1886
 
 
 
 
 
 
1887
 
 
 
 
 
 
1888
 
 
Joseph Bey Karam, the “Lebanese Prince,” dies in Italy.
 
Inauguration of the Eiffel Tower.
 
Electricity in the White House.
 
Writer Alfonso Reyes is born.
1889
 
 
 
 
 
 
1890
 
 
 
 
 
1891
 
 
 
 
 
 
1892
 
 
 
 
 
 
1893
 
 
 
 
 
1894
The Gibran family emigrates to Boston as a result of Turkish repression in Lebanon and the arrest of Gibran’s father.
 
The Damascus-Beirut railroad is inaugurated.
 
Unveiling of Rodin’s monumental sculpture The Burghers of Calais on the Place Richelieu in Calais.
 
First public projection of a motion picture: a four-minute boxing match.
 
A border treaty is reached to avoid a war between Mexico and Guatemala.
1895
Gibran meets Fred Holland Day and Josephine Preston Peabody (Posy).
 
Syrian-born Naoum Pacha governor of Mount Lebanon from 1892 to 1902.
 
Birth of André Breton.
 
X-rays used for the first time in the treatment of breast cancer.
 
Artist David Alfaro Siqueiros is born.
1896
 
 
 
 
 
1897
Gibran returns to Lebanon to finish his studies in Beirut.
 
Elias Peter Hoayek, known as the “Patriarch of Lebanon,” becomes the Maronite Patriarch.
 
First automobile salon in the Tuileries in Paris.
 
The United States declares war on Spain and gains control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Philippines, and Guam.
 
First Mexican motion picture (silent): Gavilanes aplastados por una aplanadora, by Salvador Toscano.
1898
 
 
 
 
 
1899
 
 
 
 
 
1900
 
 
 
 
 
1901
Gibran returns to Boston following the death of his sister Sultana.
 
Polish-born Mozafar Pacha appointed Governor General of Mount Lebanon.
 
The Louvre opens the Museum of Decorative Arts and the Petit Palais is inaugurated.
 
First vacuum cleaner factory established.
 
Birth of the poet Jaime Torres Bodet.
1902
Gibran’s half-brother Boutros Rahme dies in March and his mother, Kamileh Gibran, dies in June.
 
Intense political unrest during the mandate of Mozafar Pacha.
 
Marie Curie receives the Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel.
 
The United States acquires the Canal Zone in Panama.
 
Walter and Frank Sanborn open a drugstore on the Calle de San Francisco in the historic center of Mexico City.
1903
Gibran exhibits his charcoal drawings for the first time in Boston. At the exhibition he meets Mary Haskell, who will become his friend and patroness.
 
The wife of Mozafar Pacha intervenes in the affairs of government, provoking conflict and disorder.
 
Religious congregations are prohibited from providing education and the French government breaks off relations with the Vatican.
 
The New York subway system is inaugurated.
 
Adamo Boari begins construction of the National Theater, which will become the Palacio de Bellas Artes years later.
1904
Gibran’s first book, Music, is published (in Arabic).
 
The Patriarch Elias Hoayek is decorated by the Sultan Abdul Hamid II, which Hoayek interprets as a ratification of his autonomy with respect to Istanbul.
 
The existentialist philosopher and dramatist Jean-Paul Sartre is born.
 
Albert Einstein publishes his theory of relativity.
 
5,000 Lebanese immigrants and their families settle in Mexico.
1905
Publication of Gibran’s second work in Arabic, Martha Al Bania, which will later be included as “Martha” in Nymphs of the Valley.
 
Lebanon continues to be governed by the Mutasarrifate, with autonomy for the Druze and Christian communities under European protection and Turkish sovereignty.
 
Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne dies. French writer Pierre Loti publishes Les Désenchantées.
 
 
 
 
1906
 
 
 
 
 
1907
Gibran meets Emilie Michel (Michelline), who will become his lover. Spirits Rebellious, published in Arabic, is dedicated to Mary Haskell.
 
Maronite leaders demand democratic reforms.
 
The feminist writer and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir is born.
 
Henry Ford introduces the
Model T.
 
Francisco I. Madero publishes La sucesión presidencial en 1910.
1908
Gibran’s father, Gibran Kahlil, dies in Bsharri, Lebanon, when Gibran is in Paris.
 
The Sultan Abdul Hamid II is overthrown by the Young Turks party.
 
Monet exhibits his famous Water Lilies in Paris.
 
A US military base is established at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
 
The Partido Democrático and the Partido Antirreelectionista are founded.
1909
Gibran exhibits his work at the Salon de Printemps in Paris, where he meets Auguste Rodin.
 
The Syrian-born career diplomat Pacha Youssef Franco serves as governor of Mount Lebanon from 1907 to 1912.
 
Auguste Rodin praises one of Gibran’s paintings (Autumn) at the Salon de Printemps in the Grand Palais.
 
The writer Mark Twain dies.
 
Outbreak of the Mexican Revolution.
1910
Gibran moves to New York City. He begins to write The Madman.
 
The railroad line between Homs in Syria and Tripoli in Lebanon is inaugurated
 
Future president Georges Pompidou is born.
 
Dramatist Tennessee Williams is born.
 
President Porfirio Díaz resigns and embarks for Europe.
1911
Gibran publishes Broken Wings and begins a correspondence with the Egyptian writer May Ziade.
 
Lebanese immigrants in France form a nationalist movement dedicated to the independence of Lebanon.
 
Death of the statesman and economist Frederick Passy (Nobel Peace Prize, 1901).
 
The composer John Cage is born.
 
The writer Justo Sierra dies.
1912
Gibran contributes to the Arabic-language magazine Al-Funnon, published in New York City.
 
Lebanese patriot Chekri Ganem convenes the Lebanese Congress in Paris.
 
The writer Albert Camus is born.
 
The first household refrigerated is manufactured.
 
Military uprising known as the Tragic Ten Days, at the end of which President Madero is arrested and assassinated.
1913
Gibran publishes A Tear and a Smile (in Arabic) in New York. The volume includes the emblematic poem “Have Mercy, My Soul.”
 
Turkey annuls the Mutasarrifate system of government and submits the Christian population to blockade which causes widespread famine.
 
Germany declares war on France.
 
The first traffic light is installed in Cleveland.
 
The Sovereign Convention of Aguascalientes is announced.
1914
 
 
 
 
 
1915
Gibran contributes to Seven Arts.
 
A group of nationalist independence fighters, who will become known as “the martyrs of Lebanon,” are executed by the Turks in Beirut.
 
Future president François Mitterrand is born.
 
Francisco Villa raids Columbus, New Mexico.
 
The work of the Constituent Congress begins in Querétaro.
1916
Gibran exhibits his work in the celebrated galleries of M. Knoedler in New York and Doll & Richards in Boston.
 
Twenty scholars write and put in order the history of Lebanon.
 
The sculptor Auguste Rodin and the painter Edgar Degas die.
 
The Unites States enters the First World War.
 
The current Mexican constitution is promulgated in Querétaro.
1917
Gibran publishes The Madman, his first book written in English.
 
Turkey is defeated and surrenders to the Allies. At the Paris Peace Conference, the Lebanese Maronites demand the independence of Lebanon within its historical borders.
 
The composer Claude Debussy and the writer Guillaume Apollinaire die.
 
President Woodrow Wilson submits his peace plan to the US Congress.
 
The writer Juan Rulfo is born.
1918
The Procession is published.
 
Upon the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Lebanon is declared a French protectorate, with the promise of future independence.
 
The Treaty of Versailles is signed, putting an official end to the First World War.
 
Former president Theodore Roosevelt dies.
 
Emiliano Zapata is assassinated in Chinameca, Morelos.
1919
Gibran co-founds Al-Arrabitah, an association devoted to the renaissance of literature in Arabic. His second book in English, The Forerunner, is published in New York City.
 
The coastal and southern territories are annexed to Mount Lebanon, creating the Greater Lebanon which constitutes the country’s territory today.
 
Paul Deschanel becomes president of France.
 
The production, distribution, and sale of alcohol is prohibited in the United States.
 
Álvaro Obregón is elected president of Mexico for the period 1920–1924.
1920
 
 
 
 
 
1921
Gibran’s nephew and godson, the future sculptor Kahlil Gibran, is born in Boston. He will later assemble the collection now safeguarded in the Museo Soumaya.
 
The Lebanese Chamber of Deputies convenes for the first time.
 
The fashion designer Pierre Cardin is born.
 
James Joyce’s Ulysses is published.
 
Diego Rivera begins to work on the murals in the Anfiteatro Simón Bolívar.
1922
Gibran’s major English-language work, The Prophet, is published in New York.
 
Year of peak emigration from Lebanon: 16,000 people.
 
The engineer Gustave Eiffel and the actress Sarah Bernhardt die.
 
The post-war depression reaches a serious level.
 
Doroteo Arango, known as Pancho Villa, is assassinated in Parral, Chihuahua.
1923
 
 
 
 
 
1924
 
 
 
 
 
1925
 
 
 
 
 
1926
 
 
 
 
 
1927
Jesus the Son of Man is published in New York.
 
The Lebanese nation is in French and Christian hands.
 
André Breton publishes his essay “Surrealism and Painting.”
 
The painter Andy Warhol is born.
 
The Partido Nacional Revolucionario (PNR), forerunner of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), is created.
1928
 
 
 
 
 
1929
 
 
 
 
 
1930
Gibran dies in Manhattan on April 10th.
 
Gibran is buried in Bsharri, Lebanon. The Gibran Museum is later built next to his tomb in the Mar Sarkis monastery.
 
Paul Doumer becomes president.
 
The Empire State Building, the tallest building in the world at the time, is opened to the public in New York City.
 
The first Mexican talkie is produced: Santa, directed by Antonio Moreno, is based on the novel of the same name by Federico Gamboa.
1931
 
 
 
 
 
1932
 
 
 
 
 
1933
 
 
 
 
 
1934
 
 
 
 
 
1935
 
 
 
 
 
1936
 
 
 
 
 
1937
 
 
 
 
 
1938
 
 
 
 
 
1939